Introduction: The play crucible by Arthur Miller presents many themes interwoven into the texture of the story.

Puritan society required that its members follow strict guidelines of social order. These rigid rules of conduct helped the Puritans endure the persecution they faced in Europe and, after they came to America, created a close-knit community able to withstand the harsh weather and Native American attacks common to New England in the 17th century. But communities that focus primarily on social order leave no room for personal freedom. Those who think or act independently are seen as a threat to the community: they must therefore be swiftly stopped or eliminated. An excessively strict social order also provides no outlet for personal grievances. Over time, unvoiced resentments build up among individuals, primed to explode. The witch trials depicted in The Crucible can be considered an attack against individuality: those accused and convicted of witchcraft were mostly people who prioritized their private thoughts and integrity above the will of the community. The trials provided a legally sanctioned forum for the expression of anger and grievance. If your neighbor once sold you a pig that died soon after you bought it, and that neighbor stands accused of witchcraft, it seems only natural to bring up the dead pig as possible evidence. The trials also gave people like the Putnams a chance to voice their festering bitterness by accusing those whom they had quietly resented for years. Personal Responsibility Versus Authority As Arthur Miller is careful to explain, the puritan governments total religious and political authority was necessary at first to help the colony survive against great odds. Hard work, rigid discipline and a devotion to the Puritan ethic all had to be strictly enforced in the face of a bitter climate and a dangerous wilderness. Anyone who challenged the power of the church at that time was indeed posing a serious threat to the welfare of the community. By 1692, however, the wilderness was no longer so dangerous and frightening. Some Puritans began to feel that the churchs absolute power was no longer justified. Dissent began to breed confusion and threaten the social order, and the church began to look for new ways to hold onto its authority. In this uncertain social climate, the first cries of witchcraft were heard. Soon the prisons of Massachusetts were full of witches. innocent victims of a theocracy gone out of control. Act I of the Crucible quickly establishes that the churchs authority in Salem is corrupt. Reverend Parris is a weak, self-serving minister, who worries as much about the cost of his firewood as the health of his daughter. He ingratiates himself with the wealthy Putnams while imagining that Proctor and others are conspiring against him. In a fit of petulance, he tells Proctor that There is either obedience or a church will burn like Hell is burning! Proctor cannot accept this need for obedience. As he tells Rebecca, I like not the smell of this authority. Yet so far Proctors protest is limited to a personal dislike of Parris. It is an asocial protest, and takes the form of absence from prayer services and town

meetings. Proctor makes no attempt to seriously challenge Parris authority. By simply quarrelling with Parris and retreating in anger to his farm, he behaves irresponsibly, as Rebecca Nurse warns. The actions of Reverend Hale serve to bring Proctors behaviour into clearer focus. Reverend Hale had arrived in Salem brimming with confidence in the churchs power and righteousness. He had then proceeded to put words into the girls mouths and to inspire the first arrested, he has begun to doubt the truth of these accusations of witchcraft. When Herrick and Cheever arrive to arrest Elizabeth, neither Proctor nor Hale can any longer ignore the perversion of the courts authority. To different degrees, Herrick and Cheever each plead that they are only following orders; this is the cry of the Nazi war criminal, a cry that echoes wherever weak men knowingly serve evil authority. In Act III, Proctor attempts to free Elizabeth and disprove Abigails testimony in court. He still hopes to avoid any personal dishonour, and presents various briefs along with the testimony of Mary Warren. Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne represent the authority of the Puritan church throughout Massachusetts. As Chief justice, Danforth is the embodiment of Gods law with all its bigotry, rigidity and intolerance of opposition. Due process has been abandoned in the courts attempt to discover what no one has ever seen. The rules of evidence have been discarded for superstitution, hearsy, hysteria and fear. Under Danforth, opportunists like Abigail and Putnam have twisted the law into a weapon for vengeance and land greed. So far, 72 innocent people have been condemned to die. By Act IV, the courts abuse of its power has plunged Salem into chaos. Orphans roam the streets hungry, farmers fight over abandoned cattle, and people everywhere live in terror for their lives. Rebellion has broken out close by, and shows signs of spreading. Several respected citizens are scheduled to hang at dawn, and unless one of them confesses, the hanging may prove to be the spark that ignites rebellion in Salem. Proctor ignores Hale, and chooses to die as the ultimate gesture against the tyranny of the court. As Proctor mounts the gallows, Hale begs Elizabeth to stop him: what profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth?it is a measure of Hales moral blindness that he assumes the answers to these questions to be no. Millers message, then, is clear. Every individual is responsible for the welfare of society. Those who do not actively oppose tyranny, support it. First staged in 1953, The Crucible was intended by Miller as a comment on the McCarthy hearings that were then taking place. Under McCarthyism, as in Salem, due process of law had been abandoned. Innocent people were tormented on the basis of hearsay and rumour. Justice was turned upside down in a search for Red Devil that had stolen the souls of Americans Careers were shattered and lives were ruined. Few people had the

courage to challenge Washingtons authority. The need for social responsibility is a timeless theme.

Characters Of The Crucible With Strong Individuality

While most governments aim to help their citizens and maintain order through ethical means, some maintain order through the suppression of individuality and minority groups, which appears extensively throughout human history. Miller suggests that "there was no room in Salem for individuality," and uses John and Elizabeth Proctor to express this idea. They both voice opinions that go against authority and tradition, which is the essence of free thinking. Elizabeth calmly speaks against the reality of witches when she is accused of being one, "I say there are none." While John denounces the existence of God after a desperate and passionate dispute with Danforth over the girls' legitimacy, "I Say - God is dead!" Throughout the play John Proctor was pressured to conform to society and drop his attack against the court and the beliefs of the town. Today we are still struggling to find a balance between order and freedom. Minority groups and individuals continue to be persecuted based on religious beliefs and sexual orientation. Dictatorships in particular force citizens to comply with society and prevent them from expressing their thoughts and opinions. Miller in the Crucible is working with the theme of how much the individual citizen must be committed to the society in which he lives. Miller believes that man cannot isolate himself from the trials of all humanity. John Proctor carries Millers essential social message in the play. Through his character, Miller has given us a clear view of the relation that ought to exist between the individual and society. The author has created one of the exceptional heroes of modern drama. A blunt, honest man, but neither exceptionally good or a complicated one, Proctor grows with the pressure of circumstances. Like most of Millers heroes, he asks only to preserve the honour of his name. however, when a society has gone mad, such a simple, reasonable desire makes a man enemy of the state, and the confrontation between the established authoritarian hierarchy and the individuals seeking self-expression is inevitable. John Proctor is the individual who must decide whether or not he will assert himself against an over-bearing authoritarian government. The Search for Integrity: The first theme of The Crucible places the individual into conflict with his society. The second theme, on the other hand, places him in conflict with himself. According to Miller, the Crucible is a close look at the conflict between a mans raw deeds and his conception of himself. John Proctor is tormented by this conflict. Throughout the play, he struggles against his own weakness to achieve a view of himself that he can accept. This battle for integrity is lost many times before it is finally won in the plays last minutes.

God in Heaven, what is John Proctor, what is John Proctor, he is voicing a question that has driven him from the beginning. When we first meet Proctor, he has already lost respect for himself as a result of his adultery with Abigail. His crime has been compounded by dishonesty; in presenting himself as an upright citizen of Salem, he considers himself a fraud. He does not feel that he deserves his good name. In Salem, a persons name, or reputation, is everything. It binds contracts, seals loyalties and sums up the moral strength of its owner to the community. Nonetheless, he continues to postpone putting his name on the line. Eventually, when all other methods fail. Ironically, Elizbeths concern for Proctors name causes her to temporarily abandon her own integrity and deny that he is a lecher. Proctor has lost sight of his honour entirely. Out of fear for his reputation, he has allowed tyranny to spread through Salem. This crime, combined with lechery, dishonesty and false pride, damns Proctor in his own eyes. As far as he is concerned, his soul is lost. Elizabeth refuses to judge Proctor. He refuses to testify against others. Although Proctor knows he is damned in the eyes of God, he cannot bear to be damned in the eyes of his neighbors. In order to achieve integrity, Proctors soul and his name must become one. As Proctor prepares to die for loyalty and truth, he at last finds a worthy answer to the question. The Effects of Fear Fear is dominant emotion in The Crucible. Mr. parries is afraid that his rebellious Parishioners will use Bettys strange illness to oust him from his position; Abigail fears that Reverend Hale will find out what she did in the forest; so she embarks on an elaborate hoax that almost destroys the village. Ashamed to confess his affair with Abigail, John Proctor speaks up too late. Puritans believed that the Devil was constantly working to tempt human beings away from God. All other references to witchcraft are connected with fear, suspicion, and the collapse of normal social values. Irrational fear deludes them into believing whatever they are told.

Characters that confess to practicing witchcraft and accuse others of doing the same. This is the second type of accusation. Mass Hysteria: In The Crucible, neighbors suddenly turn on each other and accuse people theyve known for years of practicing witchcraft and devil-worship. The town of Salem falls into mass hysteria, a condition in which community-wide fear overwhelms logic and individual thought and ends up justifying its own existence. Fear feeds fear: in order to explain to itself why so many people are afraid, the community begins to believe that the fear must have legitimate origins. In The Crucible, hysterical fear becomes an unconscious means of expressing the resentment and anger suppressed by strict Puritan society. Some citizens of Salem use the charge of witchcraft willfully and for personal gain, but most are genuinely overcome by the towns collective hysteria: they believe the devil is attacking Salem. And if the devil is attacking your town, then ensuring that your neighbor is punished for selling you a sick pig suddenly becomes a religious necessity, a righteous act that protects the God you love and proves that youre not a witch or a devil-worshipper. The Crucible shows how religious fervor fuels hysteria and leads to conditions that sacrifice justice and reason. The Danger of Ideology An ideology is a rigid set of beliefs that defines what an individual or community thinks. In the Puritan theocracy of Massachusetts, a government run by religious authorities, the dominant ideology held that the Puritans were a chosen people that the devil would do anything to destroy. Since religious men ran their government, the Puritans considered all government actions to be necessarily good, or sanctioned by Heaven. This meant that any attempt to question, obstruct, or otherwise resist any of the governments actions, no matter how ludicrous, destructive, or ill-informed, was considered by the government and other Puritans to be an attempt to overthrow God. Governments fueled by such rigid and absolute ideological convictions often fall into corruption and tyranny without even realizing it. In The Crucible, Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne believe that theyre emissaries of God, and therefore that everything they believe must be true and everything they do must be right. They never see a reason to reassess their thoughts and actions, which makes them easy targets for cynical and talented liars like Abigail Williams. Characters like Abigail recognize the courts narrow-minded worldview and manipulate it to their own selfish advantage Reputation and Integrity Reputation is the way that other people perceive you. Integrity is the way you perceive yourself. Several characters in The Crucible face a tough decision: to protect their reputation or their integrity. Parris, Abigail, and others to protect their reputations. Rebecca Nurse and, eventually, John Proctor, choose to protect their integrity.

In rigid communities like Salem, a bad reputation can result in social or even physical punishment. The Crucible argues that those most concerned with reputation, like Parris, are dangerous to society: to protect themselves, theyre willing to let others be harmed and fuel hysteria in the process. In contrast, The Crucible shows that those who favor integrity by admitting mistakes and refusing to lie just to save their own lives help defy hysteria. Willing to die for what they believe in, they put a stop to the baseless fear that feeds hysteria.

The Crucible Theme of Lies and Deceit

Most of the characters in The Crucible are lying if not to other people, then to themselves. Abigail lies about her ability to see spirits, as do the other girls; Proctor is deceitful first for cheating on his wife and then for hiding it; and the judge and lieutenant governor and ministers lie to themselves and everybody else in saying that they serve the cause of Gods justice. The twist in the story is that by telling the truth (I am not a witch), you die, but you also gain your freedom that is, you retain your standing with God, and you become a martyr. Reputation is extremely important in a town where social standing is tied to ones ability to follow religious rules. Your good name is the only way you can get other people to do business with you or even get a fair hearing. Of course, reputation meant nothing when a witchcraft accusation was staring you in the face. But it is what made the Reverend Hale begin to doubt whether the accused individuals were actually guilty. Reputation had to do with religion: if you were a good and trustworthy person, you were also a good member of the church. Last but not least, it is for the sake of his reputation and his friends reputations that John Proctor refuses to sign a false confession. He would, quite literally, rather die. ohn Proctor, our main character, is in desperate need of forgiveness at the start of the play, but his wife seems torn about whether to grant it. He had committed adultery earlier that year while she was sick, and though his lover Abigail Williams is now out of his life, she still judges him for it. More importantly, he still judges himself. It isnt until Elizabeth forgives him, and admits her own fault in the matter, that John Proctor is able to forgive himself and recognize some goodness left in him. It is also what gives him courage to go to his death. The entire village bases its belief system on the conflict between good vs. evil, or Satan vs. God. Over and over, as people are accused of witchcraft, this paradigm gets dragged out. When Tituba confesses, she claims she wants to be a good Christian now and stop hurting people. She must renounce the Devil. When Mary Warren cant handle the girls accusations, she accuses Proctor of making her sign the Devils book and claims she is now with God. The world in The Crucible is clearly divided into these two camps. Unfortunately, everybodys confused about which side is actually good, and which side is actually evil, though its abundantly clear to the reader. It may seem like evil is winning, as one innocent person after another is put to death, but we also see that there is power in martyrdom. The innocent people who confessed are beginning to rebel, and both ministers have recognized their mistakes by the end of the play. Above all, the religion of

Salem is incredibly bleak and tends to focus on human frailty and sin to the exclusion of the good things in the world. The supernatural is real to the Salem townsfolk. They see evidence of God and evidence of the Devil everywhere. Yet nobody actually sees spirits -- though the girls claim they do. The play makes it clear that they are pretending. Their pretense may be a group psychological phenomenon, but in the world as the reader understands it, if there is a Devil, hes not in Salem: there are only people some good, some misled, some greedy, some jealous, some vengeful, some evil. The Salem of the play is a theocracy, which means that God is supposed to be the ultimate leader, arbiter, and judge. In practice, however, the towns religious authorities do the governing. God needs men on earth to do his work of justice, and Hathorne, Danforth, Hale, and Parris are all part of that system. They believed that God was speaking through the children to help them prosecute invisible, hidden crimes. The whole system gets turned upside down, and these men of experience and education are completely dependent on the assumption that the children were telling the truth and really did see what they claim to. In Salem during the witch trials, to be accused was to be guilty. To be guilty meant death. And the only way to avoid death was to confess. Though confessing was a way to bring those who strayed back into the fold, in this case it meant a lot of innocent people had to lie in order to keep their lives. Strange sort of justice. Religion is woven into the everyday life of the Salem of the play. Its exclusive form of Christianity centered on a set of clearly defined rules: you went to church every Sunday, you didnt work on the Sabbath, you believed the Gospel, you respected the ministers word like it was Gods, and so on. For people accused of witchcraft, any deviation from these rules in the past can be used as evidence for much greater sins in the present. But ultimately, even good and respected and highly religious women like Rebecca Nurse are accused and put to death, so past respectability and religiosity doesnt necessarily protect one. Many of the characters are motivated by jealousy and greed in The Crucible. Abigail is motivated by jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor; she wants Elizabeth to die so that she can marry John, Elizabeths husband. Thomas Putnam is motivated by jealousy of other peoples property; he wants George Jacobs to die so that he could get his hands on a great piece of land. Little attention is devoted to the subject of envy by any of the characters, even though it is the hidden force driving most of the drama in town. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1952. In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, the Salem witch trials of 1692 are used as a parallel to the persecution faced by Communist supporters during the 1950's. Miller believed that the singling out of Communists was no different to the witch-hunts in Salem. The themes in this play are still relevant to our world today. Fear of what we don't understand still creates hysteria among the population, while suppression of free thought continues to be an ethical concern across the world. Reputation also remains an important value to individuals, in particular people in the public's interest. Crucible Essay - Fear

How Is Fear Present & Used In The Crucible? Human society fears what they do not understand. When we observe something as unfamiliar we perceive it as a threat. This is what occurred in Salem, as dozens of people were hanged after being convicted of witchcraft. During Miller's era Americans were persecuted by their own countrymen for believing in Communism. America feared Communism would take over the world just as the inhabitants of Salem thought evil spirits would overwhelm their mind, souls and eventually Salem itself. Fear can quickly lead to hysteria, paranoia and anxiety, in turn eliminating rational thought. Hysteria is a 'snowball' effect, as it gathers speed it collects more individuals and they begin to feed from each other, only amplifying the hysteria. When Betty wakes up she calls out hysterically "I saw Martha Bellows with the Devil!" Abigail sees this as a chance to escape her punishment for dancing in the woods and joins Betty in accusing townsfolk, "I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil!" The other girls quickly follow in making accusations. Fear and hysteria quickly overruns Salem, people were afraid of witches and being accused as one. Even today people fear the unknown and hidden nature of terrorists. The media hyped up their power and existence for several months following the Twin Tower attacks, contributing to the hysteria. Just as people in Salem were scared about evil engulfing their community, the world was afraid of terrorist attacks, the governments responded by increasing security and developing anti-terrorist response units, in the hope of reducing hysteria and slowing the 'snowball' effect. The Crucible Movie

Crucible Essay - Individuality

I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another.

Crucible Essay - Reputation

How Reputation Effects People's Actions In The Crucible
Reputation plays a vital role in the motivation of several characters in The Crucible and they base their actions on their desire to protect it. When Abigail is found dancing, Parris instantly worries about his reputation by association and questions her heavily, to which she responds; "my name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled." John Proctor also seeks to protect his reputation. He has the opportunity to put a stop to the girls' accusations, but his desire to uphold his reputation prevents him from testifying against Abigail. In the end John Proctor is required to make a decision between his name and his life, Proctor decides he would rather die with an honourable name than live with a tainted one, emphasising the value he places on his name. "Because it is my name!... How may I live

without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" Reputation continues to be an important factor in society today. Celebrities and politicians in particular are concerned about maintaining a positive reputation with the public. At the same time individuals still value their name among friends, family, teammates and co-workers. The Crucible is still relevant to society fifty years after its conception and over three hundred years after the events in Salem. Miller explores human flaws and the motives behind the behaviour of people in response to the events of Salem in 1692. Salem was just a small community which now can be applied to the whole of society as these human traits still drive us today and will continue to in the future. The Crucible is an example of how hysteria, the desire to uphold status and suppression of individuality can combine to tear a community apart. We look back to the events of Salem and consider today's society to be more sophisticated. However, we have to ask ourselves, have we actually advanced socially? We are still slaves to our fear, terrorists have become our modern day witches and the suppression of our fellow man continues. Perhaps our world today is no different to the Salem that Miller portrayed.